BLACK VIKING

Once the deck had dried i cut out all the crossbeams that were interfering with the hold covers and the companionway stairs

 
There is quite a lot of sanding around the bow area to do to make it the same size as the deck.

 
Sorting this and fairing the bow frames is all one job. I do not like to use a block of wood with sandpaper fixed to it to do this on curved areas because the angle needed changes as the curve progresses. So i improvised a bit.
I put some double sided tape on a leather belt and fixed some sandpaper to it.

 
Now i am able to sand away the bow area and fair the bow frames all in the correct curvature

I started with the rigging.  I decided to ignore the rigging plan that comes with the model and base the rigging in RC Anderson's book "The rigging of ships in the days of the spitsail" - so that the rigging is more accurate for the period.  It is quite difficult to rig without a plan, so I have to plan each step carefully.  I am also using the Mayfair instructions (from Chuck Passaro) to help guide my rigging.  My biggest problem is that the SF II layout of knights and pinrails is not appropriate for my new rigging plan.  I had to move some pinrails to locations on the deck that is not perfectly suited for the rails and as a result I had to make some modifications to my forecastle and ladder going to the poop deck.
 
I decided not to pursue making my own blocks any further.  It just took too much time and didn't look all that great.  I ended up buying blocks from Chuck and no words can describe how incredible his workmanship is.  His blocks (at such a tiny scale) are absolutely unbelievable!  Chuck also went to an incredible length to ensure that I receive my blocks in South Africa.  Thanks Chuck!
 
I didn't like the first pump I made, so I made a new version (new left, old right).

 
Mounted on the deck

 
I'm please with the boat


 
Modifications to allow for my revised rigging plan:
 
a) I made a hole in the forecastle grating to simulate a move of the foremast knight to below the deck.  The rams head will ultimately be rigged to an eyebolt that I installed below the deck (to simulate the knight below the deck).  This is similar to descriptions from RC Anderson and the Mayfair rigging plan.  There simply isn't any space left on the SF II forecastle to mount the knight in between the grating and the mast.
 


 
I had to add some pinrails at various locations along the deck to ensure that rigging ends up belayed in appropriate places (following descriptions from Anderson).  I ignored the location of the pinrails in the SFII plans completely.  I needed belaying pins on the inside of the main shrouds, but the bulwarks of the SFII are of such a nature that you can't mount a rail to the bulwarks on the inside of the shrouds.  I had to make separate rails that mount on the deck.  Not ideal, but it's the only option I had.  I changed the ladder going to the poop deck to make room for a pin rail just abaft of the mizzen.
 


 
So far, I'm done with the mizzen shrouds and the main tackles.  It really is a lot harder than what it seems to get the upper and lower deadeyes spaced evenly, no matter what tip/jig/tool you use!  Well, at least for a newbie such as me.  On the photos I can see a lot of fuzz on my lanyards that you can't really see by naked eye.  But it still shows me I need to wax those lines a bit more.
 


 
As she stand today
 








 
 
 
 
 
 

As always stunning work Dave

As always stunning work Dave

As always stunning work Dave

As always stunning work Dave

Belaying Pins
We touched on this topic some while ago.
The smallest timber pins I could find and purchased were still too thick on the shaft end.
 
So I put them through the end of my Dremel chuck and shaved each down. Took a while and with much care produced a batch of smaller belaying pins.
 
The process that finaling worked well:
1. slide the shaft end in first and 

2. turn the head down a wee bit 

3. reverse the pin with chuck holding the shaft.

4. shaft the shaft down.

5, new and old sized pins.

 
I remodeled about 30 of the buggers.
 
 
Dave R

Monday, February 22nd, 2016
 
After twenty days from my latest update, I'm publishing, more due to desperation than anything else, the photos of this Viking ship model, stressing the fact that during this time I have not made much progresses. The reasons were many, but certainly one is mainly related to the greater complexity of the planking with the clinker system. Now I nicknamed it as "Klingon" system, named after the alien race in the Star Trek saga, so much hard and "time consuming" this system is: between the installation of a half plank and the remaining half (remember that a strake is made of two pieces, one of about 2/3 the total length and the other the remaining 1/3) it's necessary to wait that the glue will dry very well before to proceed further. Due to this fact I'm more or less forced to work with short sessions of one hour or less at a time and it may happen I can not always apply an entire course per side during one day. Hence the long lead times which certainly do not stimulate the wish to continue.
 
At the time, I reached the point illustrated by the pictures below: three courses per side are still needed to finish the planking, but before their installation it's necessary to clean the top of the frames, over which there is some waste material coming from the removal of the hull from the overturned building board, and apply new elements to complement the existing frames.
 
Let's begin with a vertical overview image, where you can see that the hull curve trend is pretty straightforward, with some few exceptions still remediable: with the "Klingon" system some advantages also exists and one of them is that if a course does not fit perfectly or has a bad curve trend, you can easily mask it with the next course, provided it is correctly installed.
 
01 25022016 P1100465.jpg

 
A detailed view of the bow area . . here I have not yet fully completed the installation of the last course: it remains to glue the plank on the last three frames and on the stem, but because of the curve that takes up rather strongly, I prefer separate the work in two steps.
 
02 25022016 P1100466.jpg

 
An overturned hull view of the midship area . .
 
03 25022016 P1100477.jpg

 
Overal view of three-quarters and detail of the stem, where you can watch the significant mess I made with the length of the individual strips; and this happens also at the stern. An issue I'll pursuit when the planking is off . .
 
04 25022016 P1100464.jpg

05 25022016 P1100468.jpg

 
 
Finally, the stern area, definitely resulting better than the bow . . here the curve trend of the strakes is much better and did'nt create any problem . . instead the bow was, in my case, very different !!
 
06 25022016 P1100470.jpg

 
To the next step, Jack.

So, I stained the deck (Miniwax-Golden Pecan) and stained the hatches (Miniwax-Early American) and painted the bulwarks and main rail; and I'm in the process of adding the planks above the mainrail. I deviated from the practicum and drilled the holes for the plank supports (toothpicks) after I glued the mainrail down; I thought it would be easier to align the angles on the holes since the bulwarks are slightly angled- and it would not matter if I aligned the empty spaced to accommodate the supports- I would just drill right into the wood- I started w a very small bit and graduated to the correct size to avoid wood splitting. I used ModelExpo paint, I like the color, and have never used any other type, so my opinion is limited.

Hi All,
 
Yesterday arrived this nice kit and I thought let make a build log from my progress. I havent seen this kit here on the forum yet so maybe it fun for other to see how much I'll struggle to get this job done. And maybe others will give me some ideas and recommendations.
 
It is my 3rd kit that im going to build and seems pretty difficult. And most probably its going to be more difficult when I will start with the rigging as far as I can see I will have to make some modifications to get that job done. I think I will order a dremel or such thing to drill some holes where needed, but thats for later. In the next couple of days I will start with some primer on the decks and hull and start painting the canons (there are 74). I will try (as I im trying to do with my Revell Bounty kit as well) to make the ship look like its used.
The kit the Heller develloped is the Le Glorieux at the time it was still from the French. This ship has been in a war in the Caribean during the time that the French and Spanish tried to conquerer Jamaica. But the English won and took the Le Glorieux in the fleet (so far about the hostory of this ship)
 
He some pictures of the kit:
 

The box
 

The hull
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

The sails, I'm not sure if I will use these. I like to make real sails but this kit is from plastic and I dont know if the masts can handle the weight of real sails. 
 

I printed some drawings in A1 format for a nice reference
 
Well I hope everybody will enjoy following this log. I will try to show the first progress soon.
 
Grtz Ray

As always stunning work Dave

As always stunning work Dave

I just learned the 400 pages of the booklet to drive the drone as on the first picture.
The other pictures are the result of the camera on board.

started working on the stairway to the upper deck.   it begins as two pieces of 1/32 flat stock....the upper threshold is drawn out.
 

 
and with the rest of the sides drawn out.....
 

 
this is when I realized that making two starboard sides wasn't going to end well..........so I changed one of them to be the port side.   the tread lines are drawn in
 

 
for the frame work I'm using 1/16 strip stock to outline the drawings.   this is the last of the crappy,  that I got in one of my kits........you wouldn't believe how bad the wood was.   rough cut,   not exact to size.......I'll be picky what I use,  but following the lines,  I can make allowances here and there.
 

 
going further,  the tread frames were added
 

 
.......and then the excess was cut off.   I was going to use the scroll saw,  but I ended doing it by hand with a razor  {my trusty case cutter}
 

 
once sanded and cleaned up a bit,   a dry fit was done  to see how they fit the upper deck and the main deck.
 

Simple idea' center deck section:  Put together with some maple planks glued cross ways" to some plywood strip's ...on what is the underside ,...plywood centering in the area between /on the frames so planks will rest on top of the floor frame's .
     The decks not perfect ,some defects visible", but making the planks was taking day's of time ...just what you see" dune .I have to cut hatches" out ', and make a mast hole',...as i have reinforced the mast mount boss" from 1/8" ply' ...not putting the last plank in until its glued in ...might' cut a little false stagger' pattern' ,have to decide".. LOL..so much for now ...BBL...

As always stunning work Dave

Here are four build decorations I've found on this site and the web plus the Harold Hahn (B&W) version.  Each one is different; there is no correct one. Some harder/easier than others. Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose, and if you like what you made, you'll feel better that you did.
 
I copied Robert Hunt's who copied Harold Hahn. Mine is a far cry from the original
 
Note: the images are from Jim McCurdy, Pasi Ahopelto, Raul Guzman, and Paul Bishop in that order

Well, I finished the stern planking.  I like the look – colors, etc.  But the real work is just beginning.  I’m going to try and use the die cast metal decoration.  I filed the MS piece so it is thinner (about 1/16th of an inch).  I will paint the die cast metal using the same techniques as I used on the figurehead.  I added two pins to help hold up the metal decoration (it also makes it easier to work with). The bigger problem is that on Hahn plans, there is another piece of decoration behind the supplied metal one.  There are also fashion pieces with decoration that need to be created.  Since they aren’t supplied, I’m going to have to create/carve them both. 
 

 

Found another mistake in the instructions (basically to save them money)
All the upper deck support beams are premade 6mm x 6mm Walnut, but when it comes to fitting the forward beam it says to use a piece of 5mm x 5mm Walnut
even though the gap for it to fit in is 6mm x 6mm. I suspect this is to save them supplying a  piece of 6mm x 6mm.
Anyway i dug out some old bits of Lime planking 1.5mm x 6mm and cut 4 strips and glued them together to make a 6mm x 6mm beam. This will be painted the same colour as the rest of the beams

 

Carronades nearly done. Member of crew seems to be looking for the crew mate that painted his uniform RAF blue.....
 
Not entirely happy with the straightness of the pinrails but I think I'm going to leave them for the moment as it doesn't look as .bad in the flesh,
 

Hi All,
 
Well all the bulkheads are now glued in after checking each one was square the bulkhead former. The numerous bow and bulkhead fillers along with the stern half bulkheads were then scrapped to remove the char and glued in. I took a lot of care with the bow and stern pieces to try and make sure the alignments were correct. I then planked the three sub-gun deck platforms with the caulking simulated using a soft pencil. I tried to select basswood strips of the same color and texture as Chuck points out in his instructions, but a couple still seemed to come out darker once the wipe on poly dried. These platforms will be hardly visible in the final build, but I'll perhaps need to be a bit more selective down the road once I start planking the hull and main decks to get a consistent finish.
 
Thumbnails below...thanks for reading.
 
Cheers,
 
Nigel.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galley almost finished, i just need to replace the condenser on the stove. It tried to jump ship
 

Ahoy all Modelers,
 

 
Coming along on the model. and got the swivel guns mounted on the poop deck. Also an officer was piped aboard this week to help supervise the further construction. I got a different scheme for mounting the gun port lids that might be unorthodox. If it works Ill post it here. Still to go some kind of binnacle , channels and deadeyes ( awaiting the blackening agent).
Notice the cable going to a holes in the fwd. grating and below to the cable locker.
 
Thanks for the help in various questions I posted in other threads.
 
S.O.S.
 
 

Thank you Mark, Carl, Sjors Hans and Jan for the kudos and thanks to all who clicked the like button.
 
@ Carl: Yes indeed the paddie workers wore them kind of hats but also other folks and kids.  Rather then using a fez or their traditional black fez like hats I chose something unusual.  It's different alright, I wanted something other then the usual knechten you'd see on VOC ships, like Moors as Hans shows.
 
@ Sjors: No my friend, I usually smile and these have a mean looking face   I would be angry too of I had to be perched on top of a post      Actually, one looks like the gardener that came around once a week, with one of those pointy hats too 
 
@ Hans:  Ah yes, that looks terrific!  I love that carving on the Batavia, well done.  Hmmm, you need 100 of them and in 5 mm?  Better get stated man - - - - - you can make one and make molds so you cast the rest, do like Sawdust Dave does it
 
@ Jan: Yes, that was a concern to make sure that the ropes don't rub against the hats.  I think I measured it out but one never knows - - - my measurements may be off.  In that case we'll have to go to version 3.0.  Just remove the hats and give them a full head of hair.
 
 
Talking about hair, I did not carve hair on their heads and had to add some, which I did today.  I was thinking of cutting a few pieces from Gwen's head   So when i asked for some she told me that if  tried "to be afraid, to be VERY afraid."  So whit that ominous warning I resorted to using cotton from a swab.  Worked okay.  A little glue and dabbing some cotton on, a little trimming and it actually looks kinda like the real thing   It even feels soft like hair, no kidding 
 
Next will have to be painting the faces a light brown with - hopefully - red lips.  Can't give hem rosy cheeks though.  Hey, I'm having fun.
 
I finished version 2.0 of the surabuaya carving this afternoon.  I think it really came out pretty good, even Gwen said it looks great.  I even put teeth in the crock's mouth.  A few bamboo slivers, poked a few tapered holes on the jaw, some CA and shoved the bamboo slivers into the holes.  Then trimmed them to size and carefully shaped them into pointy teeth with my trusted #11 blade.
I stained it rather lightly with cherry, just enough to offset it from the darker counter.  I can now cement the carving to the counter and will use two pins as extra security and strength.  Don't know yet what kind of glue or cement, I'll think about it some.
 
Hey, I kinda like this carving thing, challenging but rewarding when things work out good.  This small stuff is a strain on the eyes though but it's a good thing to exerciser the eye muscles.
 
Next are the carvings for the head-railings up front and the lion!  I'm rather apprehensive about tackling that one but sooner or later I have to do it.
 
Okay, here are a few pics of the work we have done, hope yuns approve.
 

Here I have placed the unstained version 2.0 carving on the counter with version 1.0 next to it for comparison.  When you click on the picture to enlarge it you may see the teeth.  h yeah, I even added the crock's tail.
 

A close-up showing the crock's teeth.  This was before I played dentist and cut the teeth a little shorter and shaped them into more crock style teeth.  Sharpened my #11 blade and lucked out again not damaging any teeth.
 

Here I am holding the carving on the palm of my hand to reduce the glare and also as a indicator to it's size.
 

The completed carving on the counter about where i think it should go.  There'll be carvings all around including the name plate.
 

Both knechten have hair now.  Ready for some suntan
 
Cheers,
 
 

Hi All.
just gathert a small opdate to shove you . just a kind of haf way with main mast [mellow] still long way to top.[glare] 
 
 

 

 
Cheers All.
 
Jens